Community Mobility Stable But COVID 19 In Jakarta Rises, This Is The Cause

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Health Office explained the cause of the increase in COVID-19 cases after Indonesia entered an endemic period and movement of people or mobility that tended to be stable.

Head of the Epidemiological Surveillance and Immunization Section of the DKI Jakarta Health Office, Ngabila Salama explained, the increase in COVID-19 cases was caused by the transition from the dry season to the rainy season, decreased vaccination immunity, to the emergence of new variants of the corona virus.

"A person's immunity decreases, high humidity makes the virus easier to enter the body. Then, COVID-19 antibodies begin to decline 6 months after vaccination," said Ngabila in his statement, Friday, December 15.

Ngabila explained, this time the COVID-19 case was dominated by the EG.5 subvariant. The EG.5 subvariant is a derivative of the Omicron variant and is included in the variant of interest (VOI) category or a variant that has a genetic mutation that is predicted to affect the clinical characteristics of the virus.

"Although mutations are indeed more contagious, the virus, the symptoms that appear should not be more severe," said Ngabila.

It is recorded that active cases of COVID-19 in the capital city have now reached 365 cases. Of the active cases as of December 13, 12 cases were treated in the hospital ICU.

"As of December 13, 44 COVID-19 patients were being treated at the hospital with 32 cases of moderate symptoms in isolation rooms and 12 cases in the ICU," said Ngabila.

The increase in COVID-19 cases began in the past month. In fact, new cases over the past week have increased four times from last week.

It was recorded that 271 positive cases a week in DKI Jakarta were on December 4-10. Daily cases over the past few days have also shown an increase.

"There were 57 new positive cases on December 11, 12 December 127 cases, and 13 December 131 new cases," said Ngabila.

The death of this COVID-19 case re-emerged when Indonesia had entered the COVID-19 endemic. Two positive cases who died occurred in December 2023 after previously for 2 consecutive months there were no deaths.

Furthermore, Ngabila explained that the government's main policy in dealing with the increase in COVID-19 cases is to protect vulnerable groups by completing immediate vaccination and early detection.

"Since the endemic of June 2023, the main responsibility rests with each community. However, the government never gets tired of urging and providing free of charge. Tighten the process of wearing masks and washing hands. If you want to prevent severity and death, vaccination is still very effective, to increase the number of antibodies also in the body," he added.